Sky and Telescope - December 2017 - 66

Imaging Technique

guide exposure should be, as well as minimum motions and
backlash settings. These should then be automatically input
in the Advanced Setup dialog.

Additional Tips to Improve Guiding

p CONNECTING EQUIPMENT Clicking on the USB icon in the toolbar
opens a window where you connect your autoguider camera, mount,
and auxiliary mount. Additional connections for camera rotators and AO
devices are available when clicking the More Equipment button.

At this point, open the Guiding Assistant from the pulldown Tools menu. When launched, this will turn off guiding
and monitor the guide star for a few minutes, then report
back useful information such as your polar-alignment accuracy. It will then offer recommendations for how long your

p DITHERED GUIDING Clicking on the "brain" icon opens the
advanced setup dialog. The Global tab includes an option to do
"dither" (or offset) guiding, which improves the overall signal of
images when shooting multiple exposures.
u p CAMERA SETTINGS The Camera tab allows you to change
exposure settings if necessary. These should be set automatically
when choosing your camera during initial setup.
u GUIDING Make advanced adjustments of the program's guiding parameters using the Advanced Setup Guiding tab. Input the
focal length of your guide scope (or off-axis guider) and click the
Calculate button to access the Calibration Step Calculator.

* For more helpful astrophotography tips,
visit Jerry's website at astropix.com.

66

D E C E M B E R 2 0 17 * S K Y & T E L E S C O P E

Now that you're autoguiding, here are some valuable suggestions to get the most out of your nights.
Don't chase the seeing! When imaging in unstable seeing
conditions, set the guide exposure to around 3 to 5 seconds.
This will produce a better average of the guide star's location.
Also try reducing the right ascension aggressiveness settings
in the Advanced Setup window, located in the Algorithms tab.
Disable unnecessary declination corrections. Some of the
biggest guiding problems come from backlash in the declination gear, producing overshoot and oscillations, especially
with inexpensive mounts. You can determine which way your
guide star is drifting by simply turning off declination guiding altogether at the bottom right of the History graph for
a couple of minutes and observing the drift direction. Then
enable declination corrections only in the direction needed to
correct for this drift.
Turn down the aggressiveness setting in right ascension in the
Advanced Setup / Algorithms tab. This is often set too high,
especially in poor seeing conditions. Adjust it until your rightascension oscillation readout is between about 0.5 and 0.3 in



http://www.astropix.com

Sky and Telescope - December 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky and Telescope - December 2017

Contents
Sky and Telescope - December 2017 - Cover1
Sky and Telescope - December 2017 - Cover2
Sky and Telescope - December 2017 - 1
Sky and Telescope - December 2017 - Contents
Sky and Telescope - December 2017 - 3
Sky and Telescope - December 2017 - 4
Sky and Telescope - December 2017 - 5
Sky and Telescope - December 2017 - 6
Sky and Telescope - December 2017 - 7
Sky and Telescope - December 2017 - 8
Sky and Telescope - December 2017 - 9
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